lord siva and sarvabhauma

[Guest guest]

dear all -

 

hare krishna. jaya sri caitanya jaya nityananda. all glories to sri guru and sri govinda.

 

i read the following accounts in caitanya mangala & caitanya bhagavata and it made me very happy. i thought of sharing it with you but you must read these books. for starters, caitanya's life story was documented by his contemporaries in caitanya mangala and caitanya bhagavatha.

 

caitanya's view of lord siva, caitanya mangala

 

caitanya and his followers went to the siva temple in vrindavan and worshipped lord siva with appropriate prayers. then caitanya accepted the prasadam of lord siva. one devotee asked murari gupta, the close associate of lord caitanya "why caitanya accepted lord siva's prasadam ? one is not supposed to as bhrgu muni. how come the lord, who is the master of brahmanas defy such standards ?" to this murari gupta replies,"who can understand the mind of lord caitanya ? i can merely speculate as follows. lord siva is non-different from krishna and for one who sees it thus there is no defect in accepting lord siva's prasadam. lord caitanya does not see lord siva as different from lord krishna. so his act is not flawed."

 

it sounds so close to sankara's view that anya devata worship is bad. but when one sees lord siva as the same as lord krishna, the supreme lord - then it is not demigod worhsip.

 

the account of sarvabhauma from caitanya bhagavatha

 

caitanya met sarvabhauma and asked him for instructions. sarvabhauma taught him the conduct of a devotee and how sannyasa is an obstacle if it causes pride. then he goes on to say that some people misunderstand sankara. sarvabhauma quotes a verse from sankara's works where sankara says though there is ultimate oneness between the jiva and the lord, the jiva is to worship the lord as a mere servant. then he completes his discourse with 13 explanations on a particular verse in srimad bhagavatham. then caitanya continues to expound on the same verse further. this amazes sarvabhauma because it is humanly impossible to go beyond the level of understanding he had. he wonders if caitanya is a great deva or the supreme lord narayana himself. understanding his mood, caitanya shows him the sadbhuja form and shares his intent to spread sankirtan.

 

this agains establishes that there was not really any conflict between caitanya's teachings and sankara's teachings.

 

i would like to know if there is any reference in the writings of gosvamis that directly attacks sankara's teaching. later day acharyas may have introduced these deviations to give us a gradual entry in to sankara's teaching - this is my speculation.

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